How far are religious zealots prepared to go in expressing their hate for the LGBT community?

How about all the way back to the segregated South of 60 years ago?

Last week, the Republican-dominated Kansas House of Representatives passed legislation that would effectively impose segregation on the state’s public accommodations.

Instead of African-Americans, however, the new law targets gay and lesbian couples.

It will be recalled that Adolph Hitler did something very similar in the early 1930s when he codified discrimination against Jews in Germany.

As reported by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, “(T)he new law will allow any individual, group, or private business to refuse to serve gay couples if ‘it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.’

“Private employers can continue to fire gay employees on account of their sexuality. Stores may deny gay couples goods and services because they are gay. Hotels can eject gay couples or deny them entry in the first place. Businesses that provide public accommodations…can turn away gay couples at the door.”

Reading that last sentence, I couldn’t help but think of former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox chasing black people away from his Pickrick restaurant with axe handles and guns in 1964 under the guise of “freedom.”

"Americans have constitutional rights, among them the right to exercise their religious beliefs and the right for every human life to be treated with respect and dignity," Brownback told the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Evidently, in Brownback’s book, gays and lesbians aren't worthy of respect and dignity.

The Kansas law also allows any government employee such as a motor vehicle clerk or police officer to refuse service or assistance to gay people if they feel interacting with a gay person violates their religious beliefs.

“(The law) is a blatant attempt to maintain second-class citizen status for taxpaying gay and lesbian Kansans." said Sandra Meade of Equality Kansas.

No doubt Republican legislators in other states who despise the LGBT community are eagerly watching how the Kansas legislation unfolds.

Thankfully, this bigoted, misbegotten bill may be D.O.A. when it reaches the Kansas Senate.

Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said late last week, “My members also don’t condone discrimination. If we cannot find ample common ground to ease legitimate concerns, I believe a majority of my caucus will not support the bill.”

Chuck, Christian zealots are trying to frame this as a religious freedom issue as part of their over arching desire to push their beliefs on everyone else, which they believe is what Jesus instructed them to do.

But Jesus also instructed his followers to love their brethren, and that includes all of them, rich, poor, gay, straight, sick, healthy, black, white, whatever.

Brownback and the Kansas state legislature have thus twisted His teachings to fit their own perverse, hateful prejudices. They need to stop calling themselves Christians.

The Coca-Cola Company presented an extraordinary commercial on Super Bowl Sunday. Against stunning shots of our diverse American landscape, "America the Beautiful" was sung in seven different languages.

"It gives way to a series of snapshots of people who represent the nation's incredible diversity," said the company. "Together they make up the fabric of American life: brothers enjoying a movie; friends dancing; families dining out and roller-skating; siblings camping and many others. Each moment is about people enjoying themselves and their friends and families -- and an ice-cold Coca-Cola."

This vibrant commercial reminds us we're a nation of immigrants, most all of whom came hear speaking another language and assimilating into America seeking to become productive citizens while remembering their heritage.

"From many, one" as our national motto proudly declares.

Regardless of your race, creed or color, the commercial tells us, here in America you are accepted for who and what you are - or you should be. You are understood and appreciated - or you should be.

Predictably, right wing media types went apoplectic.

Glen Beck, who infamously and baselessly called President Obama a "racist" said, “It’s an in your face — and if you don’t like it, if you’re offended by it, then you’re a racist. If you do like it, well then you’re for immigration. That’s what it is. You’re for progress. That’s all this is — is to divide people.”

Fox's Eric Bolling, whose network carried the Super Bowl and profited from the commercial, said the spot, "...ticked off a lot of Americans."

One-term tea party congressman Allen West declared, "If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'American the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come -- doggone we are on the road to perdition. This was a truly disturbing commercial for me..."

The conservative web site Breitbart added, "Executives at Coca Cola thought it was a good idea to run a 60-second Super Bowl ad featuring children singing 'America the Beautiful' - a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity - in several foreign languages. The ad also prominently features a gay couple."

After listening to some of the talk coming out of their retreat last weekend, Republican leaders in Washington are beginning to understand that mindless and hateful rhetoric like this coupled with tea party intransigence is rapidly destroying the GOP brand.

They are coming to realize that, for the last five or six years, they've allowed the worst right wing fringe elements to lead the Republican Party into a dark, intolerant, ugly place.

Unless and until conservatives break away from the haters on the extremist fringe and embrace the values expressed in the Coca-Cola "America the Beautiful" commercial, they are destined to stay there.

Georgia officials had at least 20 hour's notice a nasty winter storm would hit Tuesday sometime around mid-day. Sure enough, as I drove to my office in Smyrna from Kennesaw at 10:00 AM, snow was flying.

I left my office at noon. Ten miles and five hours later I arrived home.

I was lucky. My office manager arrived at her home in Powder Springs after midnight. Some Cobb County residents never made it.

When I drove to the grocery store at 11 AM on Wednesday, I-75 South at Wade Green Road was still a parking lot - 24 hours after the snow began to fall. The rest of metro Atlanta was gridlocked most of the day.

There were ominous warnings from the National Weather Service Monday. So, questions:

Where was the warning from the State of Georgia recommending businesses close offices and stores Tuesday? I didn't get the call.

When questioned Wednesday at a news conference, Deal, clad in the de rigueur sweater vest to make it appear as though he had actually been out there with the stranded motorists on Johnson Ferry Road, told reporters Mother Nature, not he, was to blame for his government's lousy planning.

"There's not anybody in this room who could have predicted to the degree and magnitude the problem that developed," said Deal. "We will act sooner next time. But we don't want to be in here crying wolf.

He added, "We have been confronted with an unexpected winter storm that has hit the metropolitan Atlanta area."

Bull feathers, Governor Deal.

I've always thought former Georgia Tech basketball coach Bobby Crimmins' motto "failure to prepare is preparing to fail" are words to live by.

Evidently Gov. Deal doesn't.

He's up for re-election in November, folks. Remember well January 28, 2014 when you cast your vote.

We have learned that Governor Deal has appointed a "Severe Weather Advisory Panel". Last week Deal and anyone in metro county government received multiple severe weather advisories and they didn't listen. We should all feel more secure now, that we have a "Severe Weather Advisory Panel", right? Every meteorologist in metro ATL was spot on with the forecast and these dopes didn't listen, including the dopes in Cobb.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is among the many Republicans who gleaned no lessons from the shellacking the GOP took in 2012.

One of the many reasons Mitt Romney was kicked to the curb was because President Obama attracted 55 percent of women voters. It’s not difficult to understand why they flocked to the Obama camp.

Women were scared off by what GOP-dominated, mostly male Republican legislatures were doing in Red States, restricting access to safe and legal abortion, trying to enact laws forcing women to undergo vaginal ultrasound probes if they want an abortion, banning contraception, and defunding Planned Parenthood.

Women heard conservative male Senate candidates talking about “legitimate rape,” and rape as God’s will, and they ran to Democrats.

So Huckabee recently set up a straw man in a lame attempt to show it’s really Democrats women should fear:

“If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Let us take that discussion all across America.”

It’s Huckabee who’s insulting the intelligence of women. They know Democrats have fought tooth and nail with conservative Republicans like Huckabee to protect access to safe abortion, contraception, and reproductive healthcare if they’re poor.

“Uncle Sugar” is Huckabee’s condescending way of telling women he and many of his male Republican cohorts are vehemently opposed to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. Republican men also don’t want women obtaining contraception, and they want to shut down Planned Parenthood which, for many poor women, is the only reproductive healthcare they have.

Like a lot of Republican men, Huckabee doesn’t understand that birth control pills are used to treat various female ailments as well as preventing unwanted pregnancy. I’m not surprised by his ignorance. I am surprised he would talk about out-of-control female libidos.

Huckabee made his remarks at the Republican National Committee meeting where party leaders are trying to figure out how to win back the women they lost to Democrats. The governor isn’t helping them.

But I encourage Huckabee and all other conservative males to keep talking about female reproduction the same way I encourage bigots who trash African-Americans, nativists who bash undocumented immigrants, and homophobes who demonize the LGBT community.

Keep it up boys. You’re the best thing to happen to Democrats in years.

I had occasion to meet in 2013 and debate Bob Barr on the issue of gun safety. I found him to be an honorable man who passionately believes the Second Amendment guarantees Americans unfettered access to firearms. Just as passionately, I disagree with his position, but we politely exchanged views on this important issue without resorting to name calling or inflammatory rhetoric.

As a member of the National Rifle Association's Board of Directors, I hope Bob Barr is as appalled as I am by the recent public remarks made by his fellow NRA board member, Ted Nugent. Here they are, word for word and in context:

"I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist raised communist educated communist nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America. I am heartbroken but I am not giving up. I think America will be America again when Barack Obama, (Attorney General) Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, (Sen.) Dick Durbin, (former New York City Mayor) Michael Bloomberg and all of the liberal Democrats are in jail facing the just due punishment that their treasonous acts are clearly apparent.

"So a lot of people would call that inflammatory speech. Well I would call it inflammatory speech when it's your job to protect Americans and you look into the television camera and say what difference does it make that I failed in my job to provide security and we have four dead Americans. What difference does that make? Not to a chimpanzee or Hillary Clinton, I guess it doesn't matter"

I believe Nugent thinks he has the NRA's support and won't be sanctioned for his outrageously abhorrent and disgusting views.

While he is entitled to them, Nugent's opinions reflect directly on the National Rifle Association and its entire Board of Directors, including Barr, its executive staff, its members, and the entire firearms industry.

As an NRA board member and a candidate running for the United States Congress, I call on Bob Barr to publically condemn Mr. Nugent's comments and demand his resignation or expulsion from the NRA Board of Directors.

I watched a fascinating documentary on the PBS program “American Experience” chronicling the momentous events of 1964.

I turned 11 years old that year but I remember much of what happened like it was yesterday.

As 1964 began, the accidental president, Lyndon Johnson, consoled a nation still grieving over the assassination of the beloved Jack Kennedy; the Beatles arrived in America and made us smile; Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston and then he became Mohammed Ali.

In 1964, white college students from the North descended on Mississippi to register blacks to vote during Freedom Summer and the Ku Klux Klan murdered three of them. The nation was appalled and demanded action.

In 1964, race riots broke out in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood after a policeman shot and killed a black teen. Rejecting Martin Luther King’s call for non-violence, Malcom X began speaking about achieving freedom “by any means necessary,” giving rise to the Black Power movement.

In 1964, LBJ lobbied hard for the Civil Rights Act and won its passage; students in Berkley challenged the University of California administration’s attack on their free speech rights and won, setting the stage for the Cultural Revolution that would follow; LBJ used the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to escalate the conflict in Vietnam.

In 1964, the Republican presidential candidate was Barry Goldwater. The Arizona senator was an unapologetic right wing extremist who promised small government and opposed the Civil Rights Act. He also seemed a little too eager to launch a nuke at the Soviet Union.

Goldwater cast every New Deal reform including Social Security as failures (remember, this is only about 30 years after FDR took office) and demanded states be left alone by Washington to conduct their affairs as they saw fit.

Then, as now, Social Security saved millions of elderly Americans from poverty and states like Mississippi couldn’t be trusted to guarantee and protect the rights of all their citizens. It was up to the federal government to step in and do it.

In 1964, Americans rejected Goldwater’s brand of radical conservatism the same way they told Mitt Romney to hit the road 48 years later. LBJ crushed Goldwater in a in a landslide.

Question the right of gay people to be left alone to live their lives and you're a celebrated hero.

Question the lack of sensible gun safety laws and you get fired from your job and even receive death threats.

Duck Dynasty's Phil Roberston candidly explained to GQ magazine why the LGBT community are sinners. A&E Network suspended him and then reinstated the duck call tycoon after right wing religious zealots started screaming about Robertson's free speech rights.

Dick Metcalf, a respected, long time columnist for Guns & Ammo magazine and a diehard gun rights advocate penned an opinion suggesting that, just maybe, some regulation of firearms would be a good idea.

Not only was Metcalf summarily fired, he began receiving death threats from readers. I wouldn't be surprised to learn Roberston, a spokesman for Mossberg guns, or one of his oddball offspring were among those who threatened Metcalf's life.

No conservative had any concern for Metcalf's First Amendment rights. Nobody on the right questioned why one of the most influential voices in the gun world was silenced. That's because double standards abound among conservatives.

For example, President Obama was most definitely born in the United States to an American mother but many on the right still insist he's not a citizen and thus shouldn't be president.

Sen. Ted Cruz was most definitely born in Canada to an American mother but the very same conservatives say Cruz is American through-and-through.

See what I mean?

So what awful things did Metcalf write that got him banished from Planet Firearms?

"The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, 'A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.' Note carefully: Those last four words say, 'shall not be infringed.' They do not say 'shall not be regulated.' 'Well regulated,' is, in fact, the initial criterion of the amendment itself."

Exactly. But, as I like to point out, facts frequently elude conservatives and very often enrage them, especially if they're armed.

Some 90 percent of Americans including gun owners say universal background checks on all gun sales make perfect sense. But the National Rifle Association said no to that and threatened lawmakers for even entertaining the idea. It should be noted that, in the wake of the Columbine massacre, even the NRA was in favor of background checks.

Alas, the obvious finally dawned on Dead Eye Dick Metcalf who clearly believed that given the stature he enjoyed, his ideas on the subject would be given polite consideration by G&A readers.

I could have told him not to bother, to self-censor because the gun industry, for which the NRA tirelessly works, would not be pleased.

Sure enough, after the parent company of Guns & Ammo received calls from two gun makers threatening to drop all advertising in the magazine unless Metcalf was disappeared from its pages, the columnist's free speech rights were extinguished without so much as a fare thee well from the right wing.

That's because many conservatives only care about their rights and not the rights of those with whom they disagree.

They'll tell you the Constitution is etched in stone. In reality, conservatives regard it as a flexible document intended only to support their rights and to be used against those who want guns regulated, or those who don't believe corporations are people, or those who believe a woman has the right to choose, or think gay people deserve the same rights as all Americans.

Kevin: The religious right, especially the religious right gun whackos are as you have so eloquently stated are TWO FACED. They condemn the behavior of the LGBT community but then will say, "God will decide". Which is it? It seems the religious wingers would be a lot better off if they kept their opinions to themselves then people like me would not be calling them TWO FACED whackos. If God is all knowing, let him decide and just shut up.

Your fellow blogger, Chris Sanchez could very well be at the head of the class for two faced religious whack jobs. He derives permission from the bible for he and Phil Roberstson to be un-christian like. I called him out on this recently on his blog and he rather quickly deleted his posts. That's the old cut and run when anyone points out a glaring weakness in their argument.

Kevin, thanks again for being nearly the lone voice of reason in this political wilderness known as Cobb County.

I watch very little episodic television and never tune in to so-called reality shows, which aren't really real.

Producers merely outline scenes and let their "talent" - and I use that word loosely - act like idiots until viewers tire of their silly shenanigans and abandon them for newer, more bizarre fare.

Speaking of which, I can proudly say I have never watched "Duck Dynasty." And I never will. Short of blasting away at each other with their shotguns, there's nothing the Robertsons could do that remotely interests me.

If that makes me an "elitist," as MDJ columnist Roger Hines characterizes anyone not charmed by this grotesque clan of swamp dwellers or things like Cracker Barrel's "dumplins," then I enthusiastically plead guilty (Cracker Barrel may be the most ironically named restaurant chain in America, by the way).

For now, the antics of this bunch of backwater goobers have grabbed the attention of 14 million Americans. As the old saw goes, you'll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator, right Jerry Springer?

I don't understand or care about all the Duck Dynasty excitement. But I do understand why so many Americans were offended by what Phil Robertson had to say about gay people and biblical teachings in a GQ magazine interview.

I read the entire article. Not surprisingly, Robertson impressed me as an ignoramus, to use Mr. Hines' word, with very little exposure to the wider world so engrossed is he in whacking quacking water fowl, Fox News and religious fundamentalism.

Curiously, Phil Robertson reportedly earned a master's degree from Louisiana Tech, but evidently his education was confined to studying the religious mores of 14th century Europe when he wasn't violently acting out.

Jesus doesn't care who you are. He just loves you. And, more important, Mr. Hines and you others who love to bash the LGBT community, He wants YOU to love all your brothers and sisters.

So I don't get how Robertson can say he turned his life over to Jesus Christ in one breath and condemn others in the next. It seems unchristian.

Years of medical research show pretty conclusively people are born the way they are. But if you accept that science, then according to Mr. Hines, it means God made a mistake. But what if God decided to make LGBT people to test our tolerance? Or what if there is no God and the world is just a happy or unhappy accident, depending on how it's treated you?

I don't expect the Duck Dynasty crowd or the adoring fans defending Phil Robertson's intolerant views to explore these deeper questions. It's far easier for self-described "traditionalists" to judge and demonize those they don't understand.

I was sorry to see Tom Laughlin, the creator of the iconic “Billy Jack” movie franchise, passed away. Very few film heroes fought injustice the way Laughlin’s former Green Beret did.

Billy Jack eschewed reason for round house kicks, negotiations for knock-out punches. He blasted bullies, rapists, white collar criminals and other assorted low-lifes, all of whom richly earned his ire.

His mission in life, judging by the only Billy Jack film I saw, was to protect the vulnerable and he always seemed to be in the right place at the wrong time, at least as far as the bad guys were concerned.

Billy would approach his leering enemy and calmly explain why what the creep had done was profoundly wrong - then came the karate chop to the throat or a boot to the head.

Billy Jack appeared at a time when President Richard Nixon was lashing out at his critics and particularly students protesting the Vietnam War. It became evident the Nixon administration would resort to any means necessary to suppress the anti-war protests when National Guard soldiers murdered four unarmed students at Kent State.

So Laughlin, a left wing political activist, produced an allegory for those sad times.

Billy Jack shows up at an “alternative” school in Arizona. It’s more like a hippie commune, but the point is nobody there is looking for trouble, just like the anti-war protesters exercising their Constitutional right to peacefully assemble.

Standing in for the Nixon administration are the local racists and red necks who make life miserable for the school's students and teachers.

Billy Jack represents justice, however harshly its meted out, and the dirt bags are soon getting what's coming to them as Billy shows them just how tough a liberal can be.

In 1977, Laughlin produced a sequel to his hugely successful first film called “Billy Jack Goes to Washington," but those were tame times compared to the tea party bullies on Capitol Hill nowadays.

I’d like to send Billy Jack to the House tea party caucus when it meets. Here’s the scene:

Billy, wearing his trademark jean jacket and flat brimmed hat with the Hopi bead band, stands in the caucus room, arms akimbo, glaring at the 80 House tea party representatives.

Billy: So, Broun, you and these others want to cut food stamps by 40 billion dollars?

Broun confidently glances at the 79 others in the caucus with a smirk.

Broun: Yeah, that’s right. Says in the Bible them what don’t work don’t eat. Get it?

Billy smiles ruefully and shakes his head.

Billy: But food stamps help little kids, old people, even unemployed veterans. I think you should put that 40 billion back in your legislation. I know you don’t want any trouble.

Billy Jack could have been filmed in Cobb County. As far as a waste of time for 500,000 Viet Nam vets, this Viet Nam vet recommends reading "Fire in the Lake" by Frances Fitzgerald and "The Brothers" about Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency by Stephen Kinzer.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, and spam will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides